Because of “my interest in military romances”, Justine from St. Martin’s Press sent me, through NetGalley, a free ARC for review of Deep Into Trouble, the third novel in the Unbroken Heroes series, which will be published on March 7th 2017. The author Dawn Ryder is from California and has written a number of sexy, contemporary romances. Under her real name, Mary Wine, she writes mostly historical romance.
Since this book isn’t published yet, I am not going to go into too much detail. The 300-page book is of average size but has a lot of action packed into it. It starts out in New Orleans with Ginger, a stuffy librarian, who is ready to cut loose. She is described quite stereo typically in the beginning and her inner monologue bothered me a bit. It seems like the author is holding on to the librarian-stereotype both in how others see Ginger and in how she sees herself. But of course this won’t work in the story, so she disagrees with herself and then all of a sudden she is someone else. But I do really like the person she becomes (if the author described her like that from the beginning and kept the stereotypes in how others see her – it would have been perfect). She is indeed a librarian who turned her love for books into a job researching people and doing background checks.
Then there is the male lead, Saxon, who works in some kind of a special opps group that does missions all over the world. He is grumpy and stern and doesn’t want to get involved with anyone because he wants to stay focused on his mission. This mission has been long in the making, because he is tracing some kind of super bad guy who messed with his family and who works for an even bigger, badder guy. But of course, the sexual tension between the two of them cannot be denied and they eventually give into it, raising the stakes in this dangerous situation.
Like I said before, this was an average size book, but packed with a lot of action, probably a little more than in most romance novels which is why I would class this as a suspense romance novel. It’s hard to put down, because they are never 100% out of danger and you know that bad things are going to keep on happening. I read it in one go, with the suspense keeping me on the edge of my seat. The good suspense is actually what made this a better romance novel than it would have been otherwise. It would have been just another typical romance novel with a damsel in distress that needs to be saved by the big bad boy who will turn out to be her hero and saviour and that the two would be thrown together by one or two suspenseful moments. Luckily, thanks to the constant suspense and threat level, the two meet under constantly high levels of adrenaline which gives the story kick to it. I liked it and I would recommend it to suspense readers sticking their toe into the romance pond and also to hopeless romantics looking for a story with a little extra oomph.
So, how many of you can’t wait to read this suspenseful romance? Let me know what you thought once you’ve read it!
Happy reading,
Loes M.